I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast

The dentary (jaw) of the new titanosaur Baalsaurus compared to its close relative Bonitasaura. The numbers indicate tooth positions. In life there would be another half to the jaw as a mirror image connected near the 13th tooth position. From http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201820180661

The game Jurassic World Evolution has a new update, with three new dinosaurs you can have in your park source

Jurassic World 3 will feature dinosaurs as more of an invasive species than Godzilla-like city-destroyers source

The dinosaur of the day: Qantassaurus

Ornithopod that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Australia (when it was south of the Antarctic Circle)

Bipedal and herbivorous

Lower jaw had ten teeth

Based on relatives, would have had short thighs and long shins, and been a fast runner

Probably ran away from predators, similar to a gazelle

Had claws on feet, and a long tail stiffened by ossified tendons (helped with turning)

About 6 ft (1.8 m) long

Probably had a beak, and leaf-shaped teeth in the back

Browser, probably ate ferns and other vegetation using its hands

May have travelled in herds or flocks

Lived in a polar region

Probably lived in cold temperatures (21 to 37°F, or -6 to 5 °C), and coldest during polar nights, which lasted up to 3 months

Probably adapted to survive the cold

Relatives were active throughout the year (no hibernation)

Dinosaur burrows, of possibly small ornithopods, have been found along the southern Victorian coast (could be Qantassaurus?)

Found in 1996, as part of the Dinosaur Dreaming project (run by Monash University and the National Museum of Victoria)

Found by Nicole Evered

Described in 1999 by Patricia Vickers-Rich and Tom Rich (found near Inverloch)

Only jaw fragments are known (based on the jaw fragments, probably had a short, stubby face)

Holotype is of the left dentary of the lower jaw, with ten teeth

Two other jaws have been referred to Qantassaurus (found in the same year, same site)

Patricia said “the jaw is unique because it is short and stocky, whereas other jaws…are long and slender”

Type species is Qantassaurus intrepidus

Named after Qantas, the Australian airline, because it shipped fossils around Australia as part of the Great Russian Dinosaurs Exhibit between 1993 and 1996, and sponsored expeditions to South America and eastern Europe

Name means “Qantas lizard”

Species name means “intrepid” in Latin (refers to the harsh climate it lived in)

May be up to six types of small ornithopods that lived in the Cretaceous in Australia, but only known from fragments

Relatives include Atlascopcosaurus, Leaellynasaura

First Victorian ornithopods were categorized as Hypsilophodontidae, based on similarities in the skull and tooth structure to hypsilophodontids found in Europe (but now thought to be a wastebasket taxon, so undergoing revision)

Fun Fact: We covered 42 new dinosaur species (so far) that were named this year.

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and animatronics. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs

And by Indiana University Press. Their Life of the Past series is lavishly illustrated and meticulously documented to showcase the latest findings and most compelling interpretations in the ever-changing field of paleontology. Find their books at iupress.indiana.edu

In our 183rd episode we got to speak with Dr. Elizabeth Rega, a professor of Anatomy and associate vice provost for academic development and academic affairs at Western University of Health Sciences. She’s also a consultant for the animation and gaming industries, and has worked on projects including Disney’s Dinosaur. She specializes in human and nonhuman primate anatomy. Here is her paper on dimetrodon, and a link to “The Complete Dinosaur” that we briefly discussed with her.

Episode 183 is also about Proceratosaurus an early tyrannosauroid whose name can be seen on an embryo cooler in Jurassic Park

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Fandango, which sells movie tickets, has added a new “Prop Shop” including Jurassic Park & Jurassic World merchandise

Claire Dearing from Jurassic World had a video encouraging people to “adopt a dino” to save them

College Humor created a clip of Owen Grady and Claire Dearing trying to check Blue into a flight as a service animal

The dinosaur of the day Proceratosaurus

Proceratosaurus

Name is seen on an embryo cooler in Jurassic Park

Theropod that lived in the Jurassic in what is now England

Found in 1910 in Minchinhampton during an excavation for a reservoir

Found a partial, fragmentary skull of a subadult

Name means “Before Ceratosaurus”

Species name in honor of F. Lewis Bradley, who found the specimen

Arthur Smith Woodward first described the skull as Megalosaurus bradleyi (part of the wastebasket taxon)

At the time Woodward described the skull, it was the most complete theropod skull known from Europe (that wasn’t crushed and hard to study, like some Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx skulls)

Woodward thought it was an ancestor of Ceratosaurus, and then Friedrich von Huene agreed in the 1930s with this interpretation (though he thought both were Coelurosauria)

Friedrich von Huene renamed Megalosaurus bradleyi to Proceratosaurus bradleyi because of its nasal horn, which was similar to Ceratosaurus

Huene originally used the name Proceratosaurus in an illustrated phylogenetic scheme in 1923

Named in 1926 (officially) by Friedrich von Huene

Type species is Proceratosaurus bradleyi

Thought to be an ancestor to Ceratosaurus, because they had a similar small crest of their snouts. But now it’s considered to be a coelurosaur, and one of the earliest Tyrannosauroidea (basal relatives of tyrannosaurs)

Scientists re-exmained this in the late 1980s. Gregory Paul thought it was a close relative of Ornitholeses (because of the crest on the nose, though it was later found Ornitholestes did not have a nasal crest). He also thought Proceratosaurus and Ornitholestes were primitive allosauroids, and that the theropod Piveteausaurus was a junior synonym of Proceratosaurus. But it was later found the two are disntinct genera

Phylogenetic analysis in the early 2000s found Proceratosaurus to be a coelurosaur

In 2010 Oliver Rauhut and others published a re-evaluation of Proceratosaurus and concluded it was a coelurosaur, and a tyrannosauroid, and most closely related to Guanlong, a tyrannosauroid from China

Episode 57 is all about Compsognathus, a small dinosaur whose name means “elegant jaw.”

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Specimen found in France was larger than the German one, and thought to be a separate species, C. corallestris (no longer valid)

Virginia Morell renamed Sinosauropteryx prima to Compsognathus prima in 1997, but most people don’t accept this

German specimen discovered in 1859 in Bavaria, same area Archaeopteryx fossils have been found

Johann A. Wagner named Compsognathus longipes and described it in 1861

German specimen is 35 in (89 cm) long

French specimen found in 1971 by Louis Ghirardi. Alain Bidar described it as a new species, C. corallestris, but John Ostrom, Jean-Guy Michard and other paleontologists have classified it since as C. longipes (Quimby said the smaller German specimen was a juvenile). The National Museum of Natural History in Paris acquired the French Composagnathus in 1983

In 1998, Jens Zinke said that 49 teeth found in Portugal belonged to Compsognathus (not identifcal to C. longipes since it has serrations on the front teeth, and Compsognathus front teeth were unserrated, but has general similarities)

German specimen had only two digits on each forelimb (so scientists thought it only had two digits), but the French specimen had three digits (the German specimen’s third digit just wasn’t fossilized)

One paleontologist thought Compsognathus had webbed forefeet that looked like flippers. And the 1975 book The Evolution and Ecology of the Dinosaurs shows Compsognathus as amphibious. However, Ostrom said this wasn’t possible, since the French and German specimens were the same except for their sizes

Marsh thought the lizards found in the German Compsognathus‘ belly was an embryo (1881) but Franz Nopcsa in 1903 said it was a lizard. Ostrom identified it as the lizard Bavarisaurus (fast and agile runner), which shows Compsognathus was fast (able to outrun the lizard) and had good vision. The lizard is in one piece, so Compsognathus swallowed it whole

Scientists used to think they had found Compsognathus eggs, since they were found close by, but now they think they’re note Compy eggs (since they were not found inside Compsognathus, eggs were 10 mm long), and its relative Sinosauropteryx had preserved eggs in oviducts that were much larger, 36 mm long)

Thomas Huxley compared Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx in 1868; John Ostrom redescribed it in 1978 (became one of the best known small theropods)

Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx have similar shapes and proportions (two Archaeopteryx specimens were mislabelled as Compsognathus for a while). Now other dinosaurs are seen as more closely related to brids: Deinonychus, Oviraptor, Segnosaurus

Compsognathus is similiar to some of the earliest dinosaurs, like the small theropods Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor (bipedal archosaur from the Triassic, 80 million years before Compsognathus); similar in appearance and behavior

Small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod

Grew up to the size of a turkey, though has been described as chicken-sized (due to a specimen found in Germany, which is now thought to be a juvenile)

Used to be considered the smallest known dinosaur (smaller ones now include Caenagnathasia, Microraptor, Parvicursor)

But may have also been the dominant dinosaur in its area

Where Compsognathus was found (France and Germany) had lagoons, beaches, and coral reefs, and used to be islands

Other animals in the area at the time included Archaeopteryx, and pterosaurs, fish, mollusks, crustaceans (no other dinosaurs found, which may mean Compsognathus was the top predator)

Had small, sharp teeth (ate small vertebrates and possibly insects); front teeth on the premaxilla were unserrated and back teeth were recurved and flattened (teeth used to identify Compsagnathus and close relatives)

Small lizard remains found in both Compsagnathus bellies (one of the few dinosaurs where we know for sure what they ate)

May have also eaten small mammals (based on well preserved fossils of its relative, Sinosauropteryx)

No evidence that Compies traveled in backs or hunted to take down larger animals, though it wouldn’t be unusual for a small creature to have that kind of social behavior

Had a narrow skull with long snout; had large eyes

Had a long neck, so it could quickly move its head side to side, and could also put its head in undergrowth and pull out prey that was hiding

Forelimbs were smaller than hindlimbs, had three digits with claws

Had long hind legs and long tails, used for balance

Feet were digitigrade (balanced on its toes), so its main foot bones extended the length of its leg and increased its stride (helped it be faster)

One study in 2007 estimated that Compsognathus could run up to 40 mph, based on measurements and hypothetical weights of a few carnivorous dinosaurs

May have had feather-like structures on body (though none have been found)

Some relatives, like Sinosauropteryx and Sinocalliopteryx, had simple feathers preserved (covered the body like fur)

One relative, Juravenator starki, had a patch of fossilized skin with mainly scales (some evidence of simple feathers too), but that may mean not all dinosaurs in their group were covered in feathers

Can see a cast of Compsagnathus at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (based on fossils Joseph Oberndorfer acquired in Bavaria in 1859)

Compsognathus appears in many children’s dinosaur books, because for a long time they were the only small dinosaur known

Compsognathus is also in the movies The Lost World, Jurassic Park III

In the Lost World, a character misindentifies a Compsognathus as Compsognathus triassicus (combing Compsognathus longipes with Procompsognathus triassicus, a distantly related carnivore in the Jurassic Park novels

Called Compys in Jurassic lego game

In the game Ark, there are wild and domesticated Compys. In packs they become aggressive and attack. Alone they can be a pet. They are also curious when it comes to humans

Family is Compsognathidae (small dinosaurs from the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous that lived in what is now China, Europe, and South America)

Compsognathus was the only member of Compsognathidae for a long time, but now includes Aristosuchus, Huaxiagnathus, Mirischia, Sinosauropteryx

Skin impressions of Juravenator, Sinosauropteryx and Sinocalliopteryx show evidence of primitive feathers covering their bodies. Juravenator and Compsognathus have evidence of scales on the tail or hind legs.

Scientists debate on where Compsognathidae lies in the coelurosaur group. Some say it’s the most basal of coelurosaurs, and others say it’s part of Maniraptora

Fun fact: The Chicxulub impactor was either a comet or asteroid that was between 10 and 15km or 6 to 9 miles in diameter. Mars has a moon called Deimos (the Greek God personifying terror – and the same root as “dinos” in dinosaur) that is right in the middle of that range.

The dinosaur of the day: Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki, which means “uncatchable lizard”

It’s a dryosaurid iguanodontian (herbivore)

It lived in the late Jurassic

Dysalotosaurus fossils have been discovered in the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania

The Berlin Museum of Natural History discovered and excavated Dysalotosaurus fossils, when it was still German East Africa

Rudolf Virchow named Dysalotosaurus in 1919

All Dsyalotosaurus fossils were found in one quarry, and between 1910-1913 they found 14,000 bones. Also in the area they discovered other dinosaurs, including the sauropods Giraffatitan and Dicraesosaurus, the stegosaur Kentrosaurus, and the theropod Elaphrosaurus

The name lettowvorbecki came from German national hero, General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. He fought in WWI. in East Africa, and was known for his guerrilla warfare tactics. He commanded 3,000 Germans and 14,000 Africans (local soldiers known as Askaris), and though at the time black soldiers were often discriminated against, von Lettow-Vorbeck treated all his soldiers the same. He was fluent in Swahili, and according to one historian, “It is probably that no white commander of the era had so keen an appreciation of the African’s worth not only as a fighting man but as a man.”

von Lettow-Vorbeck was never defeated, but he surrendered after he heard about the Armistice, in November 1918. His German soldiers were repatriated, but the Askaris were put in camps. Lettow-Vorbeck worked hard to have the Askaris be treated decently

Back in Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck opposed the Nazis, and when Hitler offered him a position in 1935, he declined. He was often harassed by the Nazis, and the reason he survived the Nazi years is because he was so popular as a WWI German hero

Unfortunately many Dysalotosaurus fossils were destroyed in WWII during bombing raids (so know some of the best records of it are via drawings

Of the fossils that survived, only one still has about 50% of the skeleton

It used to be considered to be a species of the genus Dryosaurus, but now it’s in its own genus (Dysalotosaurus)

Dysalotosaurus was medium sized and ran on two legs

Dysalotosaurus was precocial, meaning it was born in an advanced state and able to take care of itself at a young age, and became sexually mature after only ten years

It’s unclear how quickly it grew, but it could reach the size of a large kangaroo

In 2011, two paleontologists Florian Witzmann and Oliver Hampe and their colleagues found that some of the Dysalotosaurus bones with deformations were probably caused by a viral infection, making it the “oldest evidence of viral infection known to science”

It is similar to Paget’s disease of bone, which has abnormal bone destruction and regrowth (may be why it’s hard to determine how it grew)

First evidence of viral infection, ever

Scientists have found thousands of Dysalotosaurus bones at varying stages of maturity, possibly from one herd

Both juvenile and adult fossils of Dysalotosaurus have been found, which allowes Dr. Stephan Lautenschlager and Dr. Tom Hubner to study the species’ brain, at two different growth stages

The smallest Dysalotusaurus specimen was 0.7 meters long and the largest was 5 meters long

They used CT scanning and 3D imaging to reconstruct the brain and inner ear of a 3 year old and a 12 year old Dysalotosaurus

They published their findings in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology

They learned that juveniles had strong hearing and cognitive processes but a lot changed as they grew older, to help adapt to their environment

Younger Dysalotosaurus had shorter snouts and larger eye sockets (probably cuter), also only 20 teeth versus 26 teeth as adults. The teeth became wider in older dinosaurs, and juveniles had three upper teeth that were slimmer than the rest (adults did not have this), which may mean juveniles were monivores and adults were purely herbivores

The study helps show how parts of the brain developed in dinosaurs, but more research is needed to establish a pattern of brain development

Dryosaurids lived during the Mid-Jurassic and early Cretaceous period, in Africa, Europe and North America

They were primitive iguanodonts

They were medium-sized, with long legs, small forelimbs, and small, short snouts

They had soft-tissue above their eyes, which made them look like they were frowning (as seen in modern birds of prey)

Dryosaurids were bipedal, with three toes on each foot (but only representing digits II, III, and IV, not the first toe, or “hallux”)

They look somewhat similar to ornithopods, such as Hypsilophodon, so they used to be considered “hypsilophodonts.” Now they are classified as part of the Iguanodontia group, which is not close to Hypsilophodon (Dryosaurids did not have premaxillary teeth, which means they only used their beak to bite off plants

The first dryosaurids were found in the 1870s in North America, and then later more were found in Africa in the early 1900s, then in Europe in the 1970s (the dryosaurid fossils were found earlier in Europe but had been misclassified)

Fun fact: The first dinosaur was found in North America in 1854, by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden while he was exploring the upper Missouri River. He found some teeth, that Joseph Leidy classified as part of Trachodon, Troodon, and Deinodon, in 1856